After two disappointing years, '04 Indy 500 champ has spring back in step source: indycar.com / Dave Lewandowski Racing frustrations the past two IndyCar Series seasons began to mound like the Estrellas near Buddy Rice's native Phoenix. The 2004 Indianapolis 500 champion's fortunes appeared to vanish. Because of an injury suffered in practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he wasn't able to defend his 500-Mile Race title in the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Racing-prepared car. That was only the beginning, and his easy-going smile became progressively scant. There were four top-10 finishes (two after the Indy incident) in '05, followed by two last year (none after his fourth place at Watkins Glen in early June). But there's fresh breeze in this dour tale, and Rice's grin has returned as he prepares for the season-opening XM Satellite Radio Indy 300 on March 24 in the No. 15 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone. He sees promise, commitment and the opportunity to start anew. "It might take us a little bit to get rolling, but I think it's going to be a very interesting year," said Rice, who will have IndyCar Series veteran Sarah Fisher as a teammate in the No. 5 entry. "It will definitely improve on where I have been running. We haven't been running very well the last couple of years, and obviously I wanted to up that." At 31 years old and with 63 starts (three victories, five poles, 13 top-five finishes), Victory Lane is the only destination. "(Rahal Letterman) didn't have the sponsorship to fulfill the third year of the contract, and I needed to go somewhere where people were doing the same thing and the commitment that these guys are putting into their team is important," he said of leaving the team that took him to the heights of the sport in'04. "I think we can run inside the top 10 solidly week in and week out. If we work on it a little bit and get everything up to snuff like what these guys think they can do, we might not be too far back from the four red cars, which would be a big boost to me to be running at the front where I like to be running. It's definitely a step in the right direction." Team co-owners Dennis Reinbold and Robbie Buhl have a similar vision, which is the underpinning of their off-season investments and expansion to a two-car team for the first time since 2003. Engineers John Dick and Chris Finch, late of Fernandez Racing, were key additions. Gearbox and shock departments -- heretofore outsourced -- were added.
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